Two main commercial processes are typically used by bakers to produce cheesecakes. In the wet bake process, steam is introduced into the oven to provide a high relative humidity. Using this method, cheesecakes can be produced having relatively few cracks; the upper portion of the cheesecake does not obtain the desired golden and smooth surface. Using the dry bake process, a resulting golden and smooth surface can be obtained; such a surface, however, may be subjected to a significant amount of cracking and other surface defects.
Cream cheese is prepared from milk with the addition of supplemental amounts of cream to form the cream cheese curd. The cream cheese filling of cheesecake includes non-fat dry milk, water, and cream, in addition to a significant amount of cream cheese. The assignee of this invention has undertaken to prepare cheesecakes on a commercial scale using essentially 100 percent of a high quality cream cheese (i.e., Philadelphia Cream Cheese.TM.), as opposed to a blend using such a high quality cream cheese in combination with a significant amount of other products (including cream cheese). Generally, products resulting from dry baking a cheesecake using essentially 100 percent of a high quality cream cheese, although yielding an excellent tasting cheesecake product, often suffered from cracks on the surface of the cheesecake, which often significantly penetrated into the body of the cheesecake, and other defects (e.g., blisters and the like). Furthermore, such baked cheesecakes often had significantly lower centers (as compared to the outer portion); this so-called "stadium effect" is considered a defect. These cosmetic defects detract from consumer acceptability of the product, especially when the cheesecake is to be sold "as is" (i.e., without a topping which would tend to hide or mask the defects). As a consequence, cheesecakes having cracks, stadium effects, or other cosmetic defects are often discarded, leading to waste, increased manufacturing costs, and decreased profitability.
The protein content, as well as other components, in dairy liquids used in the manufacture of cream cheese, and thus in the cheesecakes using such cream cheese, varies through the course of a year in a seasonal cycle. These variations are likely due, at least in part, to the distribution of nutrients available to dairy cows during the year and, perhaps, hormonal and other cyclic changes affecting dairy cows. Moreover, these variations in protein levels (as well as other components) can be modulated by local weather conditions, bread of cows in the herd, and the like. Nevertheless, bakeries conventionally employ a single standard recipe for preparing the cheesecake batter and do not, therefore, adjust for seasonal changes in the dairy products used. Rather, bakeries normally use changes in the baking process (e.g., temperatures, time, and the like) to correct for the seasonal variations. Such process modifications, of course, require skilled bakers and, in many cases, considerable trial and error. Even in the hands of a skilled baker, considerable losses occur.
There is therefore a need to provide a method of preparing a cheesecake filling that reduces or eliminates the incidence of cracking on the surface and in the body of the cheesecake upon dry baking. There is also a need to provide a method that eliminates or substantially reduces unacceptable stadium effects. There is furthermore a need to account for seasonal variation in the components, especially the protein content, of the dairy ingredients used in preparing cheesecake batters in a way that standardizes the composition of the batter throughout an annual cycle. These needs should be met, of course, while still retaining, and even increasing, the overall texture, taste, and organoleptic characteristics of a cheesecake filling that the consuming public finds acceptable and pleasing. As one of ordinary skill in the art will realize upon considering this specification, the methods of the present invention realizes these objectives and allows the production of superior cheesecakes regardless of the seasonal variations of the components used.